Football History Rewind Part 65

We smacked the rewind button on the cassette of Gridiron history and stopped at the pro football season of 1929. A year that saw the NFL add an official and gain a new champion.

New franchise additions included the Orange Tornadoes, Staten Island Stapletons, and Minneapolis Red Jackets. The Buffalo Bisons were also added as they suspended operations for the previous year and happily enjoyed reentry to the fray of active NFL franchises. There were also a few revisions to returning teams. The Pottsville Maroons were now the Boston Bulldogs, the New York Yankees folded, and the Detroit Wolverines merged with the New York Giants, staying under the name umbrella of the Giants.

Officiating changes

The National Football League made a substantial change to their officiating crews. The addition of a fourth on-field official, the Field Judge, helped to box the gameplay in so that eyes could see the action from all sides. The FJ joined the Referee, Umpire, and Head Linesman on the field. According to a recent post on the Football Zebras website, the new Field Judge position was optional during the next few seasons as clarified by NFL and the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The Field judge would cover a few areas of the field, the sideline opposite the head linesman and the deep secondary of the defense behind the umpire. Offenses explored both areas as the game used the forward pass more than previously.
 

We have placed some product links on this page. If you purchase by clicking on them, we will get a commission to use to help with operating costs.

In the first nine weeks of play, the frontrunners in the standings were the Green Bay Packers and the New York Football Giants. Neither franchise had lost a game. The press touted the November 24 meeting between the 8-0-1 Giants and 9-0 Packers as the unofficial NFL championship game. There would not be an official postseason contest to determine a League Champion until 1933, so the records meant everything for the title. They were probably pretty close in this prediction, as each team had other games remaining on their schedules afterward, but none threatened these powerhouse elevens.The game was everything it was built up to be. The Pack took the early lead when Verne Lewellen sailed a touchdown pass to Herdis McCrary, and Bo Molenda's extra point gave Green Bay a 7–0 lead in the first quarter. The Giants responded with a TD passing strike of their own when Benny Friedman found Tony Plansky for the score, but the extra point kick attempt was blocked, and New York trailed 7–6 in the third quarter. The Packers padded this lead in the final stanza,  winning 20–6 to take a one-game lead in the standings. As predicted, neither Green Bay nor New York lost their remaining games; the Packers finished at 12–0–1, the Giants at 13–1–1. It was a tight race, but with the head-to-head victory Curly Lambeau and his Packers had sealed their first NFL championship title.

With great teams comes some individual recognitions for the players that stood out amongst the others. The fellas that played their hearts out are legendary when you consider that there were the likes of: Bull Behman, Tony Plansky, Ernie Nevers, Mike Michalske, Verne Lewellen, Joe Wostoupal, Benny Friedman, Ray Flaherty, Lavvie Dilweg, Cal Hubbard, Milt Rehnquist, Duke Slater, Bob Beattie, Walt Kiesling, Steve Owen, Ken Strong, George Pease, Luke Johnsos, Joey Maxwell, Jack Spellman, Walt Holmer, Doug Wycoff, Herb Blumer, Johnny Blood, Wally Diehl, Jug Earp, Hal Hanson, Bill Kern, Bob Lundell, and Frank Racis

Here are the 1929 NFL Players chosen as All-Pros and their stats as delivered by Pro-Football-Reference.

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites: Newspapers.com, the Pro-Football-Reference.com website databases & Stathead.com.

Banner photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of The Big T, the yearbook of the California Institute of Technology and the Associated Students of the California Institute of Technology (ASCIT) of the Football touchdown in 1929 art detail.